Recovering Heart
by UnicornTalesLol
Summary: It's been a year since Ryuga's death and Kenta is still recovering from his grief. But it's okay. He's recovering at his own pace. He's fine. Just a small drabble, really.


Kenta continued to colour in his drawing, concentrating heavily on making sure his drawing was perfect and had no flaws. He made sure to pay extra attention to the pattern of the scales. No mistakes could be made here.

Kenta was holed up in his room once more, hunched over his desk. It had been a year since Nenemis' defeat and Ryuga's death. The young boy was doing his best to cope, struggling not to let his depression and grief overwhelm him. Whenever he was upset, the boy turned to Beyblading. However, the sport did little to help with grief despite how fun it usually was. It was hard to enjoy Beyblading when he had Ryuga's power coursing through himself and his Bey. Blading became far too painful for him, as whenever he did, he was instantly struck with memories of Ryuga.

Shortly after Ryuga's death, Kenta had to drop Beyblade for a while, due to it being too painful for him. He had much to recover from and Beyblading wasn't as much help as it used to be. Of course, Kenta would surely return to his beloved sport and now, occasionally had a battle with his friends here and there. But if possible, he preferred to avoid a battle if he could.

With the main thing in his life too painful for him to participate in, Kenta had to find other ways to entertain himself and occupy himself. He ended up turning to art to occupy his time and Kenta found that it was actually something he was interesting. It was time-consuming and helped him keep his mind off of topics he preferred to avoid, if only for a little while. Kenta knew he couldn't push away all his thoughts, but he could at least tackle one problem at a time. He was healing at his own pace and honestly, Kenta was proud of himself for it.

He wanted to tackle it all on at once but he knew if he did so, he'd never fully recover. The pitying and worried stares had lessened considerably and his friends still checked up on him, but they weren't acting like they were talking to fragile glass anymore. They respected his decision and left him to it. He had received various comments on how much he had matured and when Kenta thought about it, he agreed. He knew he had grown up. He didn't regret it though. Some people said he was wasting his childhood but Kenta had to disagree there. He already had so many different adventures with Gingka and the rest and his own one with Ryuga, he had more than enough of a good time. He was living. He was enjoying his life. Sure, he may have matured, but Kenta was still living the way he wanted to.

He was recovering from the events of Nemesis slowly, yes, but he was doing it. He was recovering from the grief of losing Ryuga slowly. He was recovering from his guilt, slowly accepting that Ryuga had been the one to make the choice. Though, even though that's what everyone said, Kenta still had a hard time believing it. But at the very least, he was coming to terms with it. He was slowly getting back into Beyblade again. Instead of having his grief return when he Beybladed and felt Ryuga's power, he embraced the feeling. It felt like Ryuga was right beside him, watching over him. Of course, he kept that feeling a secret from the others. He didn't want them worrying. Besides, Kenta kind of wanted to keep his own little secret.

He felt warm whenever he Beybladed, Ryuga's power engulfing him. Kenta recalls a time when he tried to Beyblade all his feelings away. It had been disastrous. He had been pouring all of his negative emotions into his power and eventually, Ryuga's power had overwhelmed him, fueled by his negative emotions. He had wrecked the stadium and dealt some serious damage to his opponent - who had been Masamune at the time, and most importantly, himself. After that, Kenta had locked him away entirely, refusing to speak to anyone or take care of himself. But it had been then that Kenta decided that he needed to recover properly and not force his way through everything.

He had been careful whenever Beyblading and Kenta found that Ryuga's power wasn't actually as hard to control as he originally thought. As long as he wasn't being too negative, Ryuga's power had nothing to explode over. He eventually began to incorporate Ryuga's power into his battles and he heard the many comments on how people could sense Ryuga's power striving within him. Kenta had been lost on what to do about it, but over time decided that he didn't want to do anything about it. He didn't want to let go of Ryuga. He wasn't ready to and Kenta doubted he ever would be.

So instead, Kenta decided to keep the power, hopefully as Ryuga had intended. He had become stronger in many senses, both mental and physical. But Kenta was fine with that. He was content. He was alive and his friends were always beside him, supporting him however they could. Kenta was fine the way he was. He was in control now. In control of himself and his own life. He didn't focus on "what if"'s anymore. He focused on what had already happened and what he could change in the _future_ and not in the past. He was content with everything. He was happy. He was recovering and soon, he would likely return to the Beyblade world once more.

Kenta pulled himself back, sitting up properly as he stared down at the sketch he had made from nothing short of pure memory. In front of him lay a perfectly drawn and incredibly detailed sketch of L Dragon in Dragon form rather than Bey, with Ryuga standing next to it. Ryuga had a small smile on his face, his hand reaching for L Drago, how looked like they were about to nuzzle their head into Ryuga's hand. Kenta smiled.

He stared at the picture for a few more moments, proud of himself. It had taken him a while, but he was certainly very proud of it.

Kenta lifted up his hand, staring at it for a moment before summoning the power buried deep within him. Within a few seconds, a small red dragon manifested, wrapping itself around his wrist and perching the top of its body in the palm of his hand.

"What do you think, L-Drago?" Kenta asked quietly. The small manifested Dragon turned slightly so it could see the picture he had drawn. After a few seconds, it turned to him and Kenta had his answer. He chuckled quietly, closing his eyes. He leaned back in his seat and looked up at the ceiling, making sure to keep his right palm in the same position. L-Drago wasn't a fan of being waved around.

"You really think so?" He muttered. Kenta opened his eyes, a small amber glow burning in them and looked back down to the drawing, staring at the warm expression he had given Ryuga.

"I think Ryuga could be like that, you know? Maybe not on a daily basis, but I think I could still see it happening sometime." The small dragon rolled its eyes at him but turned back to the drawing and stared at it some more.

Kenta smiled as the Dragon's next chosen words.


End file.
